Joanne Knipmeyer, a Republican Precinct Committeeman representing Randolph Precinct 3 which is within the boundary of Heyworth CUSD#4 hosted an event that she described as a Call to Action at Hesed House in Heyworth on Tuesday evening. The Call to Action followed on the heels of the involuntary resignation of former Jr. High English Teacher Sarah Bonner.
Knipmeyer said, “I wanted people to come and have a chance to understand a little bit about the (education) culture that is changing quickly.”
As a mother who homeschooled her children for 14 years, Knipmayer stated, “I was very interested and aware that indoctrination and education were two different things happening in schools. And so I have stayed close to that issue so when this came to the forefront I wanted to be able to give people a call to action because there are things that parents can be doing individually, they can be doing collectively to help protect and to ensure their children get educated instead of an agenda of social action.”
There were three main points that Knipmeyer made during her event. They were;
- Vote and get out the vote.
- Get involved with local government.
- Educate yourself.
Locations where people can go for education include Awake Illinois and parentalrights.org
Awake Illinois is a non-profit social welfare organization. According to their website, “This grassroots organization was launched by everyday parents and citizens in May 2021.”
The groups name references an awakening that happened during the corona virus pandemic as people took note of issues affecting their children and social communities. Awake Illinois started in Naperville, Illinois, and is now a statewide organization with over 30 chapters.
The group is especially involved with education, equality, legislation, civic involvement and social welfare causes.
Regarding education the organization promotes a library watchdog called Mary in the Library USA.
Parentalrights.org is a is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit political action organization that works to pass legislation that will protect families by preserving parental rights, stopping legislation that endangers those rights, and generally raising awareness of these issues in the public eye.
According to the groups website the organization is made up of, “concerned parents and citizens who care about children and are concerned by how parental rights are slipping away.”
The group believes, “Children need to be raised and represented by parents who love them, not by disconnected government officials,” and that, “When it comes to raising children, parents are better than the government.”
Parentalrights.org has been heavily involved in the Parental Rights Amendment to the Constitution recently passed by the US House.
